Embodiments of the invention generally pertain to systems and methods for varying sources of audio in an interactive interface, or more particularly, to varying the audio of windows in an interactive operating system environment.
Computers typically enable user interaction through an operating system, which includes a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software of the computer. Operating systems may enable user interaction via text commands in a command line interface, or via mouse and keyboard input in a graphical user interface, or GUI. One of the more common GUI interfaces is a windows based GUI. In a windows based GUI, computer programs are visually organized in panels referred to as windows.
Each program in an operating system may be associated with its own particular window. In addition, certain programs may be associated with multiple windows. The amount of windows that may be associated with a particular program may increase or decrease depending on either user initiated interactions with the program, operating system initiated interactions with the program, or both. In addition, the window or windows for a particular program may be moved, resized, minimized, maximized, or any combination thereof, in the viewable display space of a GUI by the user, the operating system, or both. For example, a media player application may be enlarged by the user so that audio/video media playing in the media player takes up a larger part of the viewable display space of a GUI.
The display space of a GUI may become crowded when multiple windows are displayed simultaneously. These windows may overlap, causing portions of a window or windows to be obscured to the user. The user may become inundated when multiple windows are displayed simultaneously, making it difficult for a user to differentiate among windows. Windows that are playing media content, such as audio/video media, may no longer be fully visible to a user. Thus, portions of media content may no longer be fully visible to a user.
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, there is a continuing interest in varying the audio of the playing media in overlapping windows in an interactive operating system environment for both practical and aesthetic purposes.